Somali journalist killed in Mogadishu: employer

A Somali journalist working for a popular Mogadishu radio station was killed Tuesday by unidentified gunman in the capital, his employers said.

Abdiaziz Mohamed Ali, employed by the Shabelle station, was shot several times while he was visiting his parents in the Yaqshid district in northern Mogadishu.

The victim worked with the country’s popular Shabelle radio whose owner Abdimalik Yusuf Mohamud said he was a professional, dedicated to his work.

“His death shocked us all and we don’t know why he was targeted,” Mohamud added.

The gunmen fled, and there was no immediate claim for the killing.

The deadly attack was the second targeting a journalist this year. In June a producer and presenter on the state-owned Muqdisho radio station, Sagal Salad Osman, was shot in Mogadishu in similar fashion.

Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for media workers: 45 Somali journalists were killed between 2007 and 2015, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Al-Qaeda linked Islamist militant group Shabaab, which is locked in battle against the Somali government, regularly mounts attacks against officials and journalists.

Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres) lists Somalia in 167th place out of 180 countries in its 2016 freedom of the press league table.

Dispatches from AFP concerning freedom of information, censorship and news coverage in regions where independent media is under threat.

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